Dark Haven

Chapter 1: That Twisted Bed Time Prayer

"Now I lay you down to sleep. Pray the lord your soul to keep. If you should die before you wake, pray the lord your soul to take." Whispered the chilling voice. The twisted children's prayer was then followed by a wicked cackle. Then …the line went dead.

I flipped my cell phone closed and stared at it in my palm. That was the seventh time he'd called me in the past three days. The creep.

It all began with an email seven months ago. It had read the same strange thing. He always recited that old prayer my parents taught me when I was just a toddler, except he made a few minor creepy changes, transforming the bed time prayer into a threat. After the emails, the letters started, then the phone calls began. He never said anything more than those same few sentences. The sick freak. What did he want from me?

Lately, I've been getting this strange feeling that he's been watching me for far longer than I had originally thought. The emails started right after my dad left for his second tour of duty in Iraq. He'd likely been watching me well before that, just waiting for the right opportunity to start tormenting me. My dad was a cop and a marine. It made sense for him to wait until he was out of the picture. Now, without my warrior dad to protect me, I was helpless. Sure I could call the cops on him, but I really didn't want to worry my mom. With her two jobs, my brother failing math, and my dad off at war, she had enough to worry about.

"Matthew get up!" I heard my mom yell from across the hall.

Great. Why did Matt have to be so difficult in the morning? Mom always woke me up when she had to yell at him like that. I threw off my colorful quilt and climbed out of bed. "I'll get him up, Mom." I called out to her, staggering across the hall to my brother's room.

I entered "the pit" carefully. We called it that because every piece of carpet was covered with action figures and junk. You could barely walk in his room and if you ever lost anything in there, you'd never find it again. I grabbed his Spiderman comforter and yanked it off of him.

"Stella!" He groaned.

"It's your own fault for goofing off in class." I reminded him as I grabbed his feet and pulled him clear off of the bed. He landed on the floor with the snap, crackle, and pop of crushed action figures.

"Ow!" He cried. "That hurt!" He whined.

I picked up one of his Star Wars light sabers and started whacking him on the head with it. "Get ready for school, Gremlin." I demanded as I whacked him all the way to the door.

After a quick breakfast of Coco Puffs, mom and Gremlin left for their day, mom to the first of her two jobs as a cashier at the local Good Food grocery store and Matthew to summer school. I was left home alone.

I put on some shorts and an old t-shirt, brushed my unruly dark brown hair, (curly hair can be beast to tame) and brushed my teeth. Then I loaded the dishwasher and straitened up the kitchen. When I was finally finished, I decided to go to town for a while. I needed a new sketchbook and some batteries for my XBOX controllers.

I grabbed my purse and jumped into my green Cavalier. The trip to town only took about five minutes. We live in the perfectly small town of Bloom. We have a Dollar Store, a McDonalds, a movie rental store, a laundry mat, a grocery store, and a Chinese take out place. That's it. I pulled up at the Dollar Store and went inside. I made a b line for the school supply isle and grabbed a sketchbook, then I went back up front, grabbed a pack of batteries and got in the check out line. I made my purchases and went back to my car. As I was unlocking the driver's side door, I had the eerie feeling that someone was watching me. My hazel eyes lifted to fixate upon a man on the other side of the parking lot. Aviator styled sunglasses hid his eyes. He was wearing a hooded sweat shirt, with the hood drawn over his head. In the middle of June? The longer I stared at him, the more I shook. Something wasn't right about this guy. He opened his mouth and began to sing. I realized then what it was that scared me so much about him.

"Now I lay you down to sleep, pray the lord your soul to keep. If you should die before you wake, pray the lord your soul to take." He sang, mockingly. Beneath the shadow of his hood, I could see that he wore a smile on his face.

My heart racing wildly, I climbed into my car and sped off as fast as was legally aloud.

When I got home I locked all the doors and windows, cut off all the lights and appliances, and hid in my room. I huddled in my bed, curled up in the fetal position with the covers pulled over my head. My breath came out in wild gasps as I fought to slow my heart rate. I couldn't believe it. I'd actually seen him! I jumped at the sound of my ring tone. I grabbed my cell from where it rested on my night stand and flipped it open. "H-hello?" I stuttered.

The voice on the other end was quiet for a moment. All I could hear was ragged, excited breathing, then…he spoke. "Hi, Stella." He greeted with a little chuckle. "You looked so pretty today in those little shorts." He laughed harder.

My eyes bugged out of my head and the hand that held my phone to my ear began to tremble.

"Why'd you leave so suddenly? Didn't you like my singing?" He asked.

"Why are you doing this?" I cried. "What do you want from me?"

The voice stalled; then in a much deeper voice he said, "Your blood."

I screamed and dropped the phone on the floor.

That night, I paced around my room, racking my brain on what to do. I knew that reporting him was the smart thing to do, but…I don't know…something held me back. It could all be a joke, just a really sick joke, right? I hoped it was anyway.

I sat at the edge of my mattress and picked up the framed family photo from the night stand beside me. I never really liked this picture. It was taken the night before his first deployment. We were all smiling, with our arms around dad. We looked happy, but it was lie. Those smiles were fake. Inside, we were all scared out of our minds. I traced the outline of his face with a finger tip. "Dad…I really wish you were here right now." I cried,. Tears dripped from my eyes and streaked across the glass of the picture frame.

Author's Note: So how was it? Want more? Well...you'll just have to leave a review to let me know.